Time Goes By
by KrazyRougeChic
Summary: Fifteen years after the death of his lover, Christian Suffolk, eldest son and heir of the Lord of Suffolk, is called to fight in the Great War. But when he arrives in Paris to fight, the shadows of his past return, in more ways than one.
1. The Letter

The year was nineteen fourteeen, and it had been fifteen years since I'd left my father, the Lord Dunsmoor of Suffolk, and my home to chase my childish dreams. It had been fourteen years since I'd returned, battered and broken, with a new opinion of 'love' and of the 'revolution'. My father accepted his eldest son back, and I was once again the heir to his title. Back home in dear old England, I found Kathryn, the daughter of an Irish general, two years my junior, and set about making my wife. When the war began in 1914, we had been married for three years, and it had taken me that long to convince her it was she that I loved, and not the prostitute I'd been infatuated with for a month or so when I lived in Monmartyre, Paris. Those days were long ago, and I'd only been seventeen when I left.  
  
The letter came just the day after Kathryn told me she was pregnant with my first child (oh, how I prayed for a boy!). The letter was from the Army Department Of Personel. It read:  
  
ITo Christian Suffolk, son of The Lord Geoffrey Dunsmoor of Suffolk:  
I, the Seargent General Manfield of the First Division of the royal army in servitude of his majesty, King George V, son of King Edward VII, am regretful to tell you that His Royal Majesty requires that one of every five men, ages eighteen to fourty, serve in our army. It is therefore required that you, the eldest son of the governor, Lord of Suffolk, to serve in the fifth artilary of the second division. Enclosed in this letter are directions on where to report. Good day, and may God watch over us all in these dire times, when the diabolic Germans make their way even now towards Paris.  
Signed,  
Seargent General A.K. Mansfeild./i  
  
Just as the Seargent General had said, there were directions in the envelope telling my to report to a nearby army base. I was given my uniform, the rank of private first class, and orders to accompany my unit to Paris. 


	2. Every Now And Then

When my unit arrived in Paris, we were given a day-leave from out barracks. This was because we were not in as feirce a situation as we soon would be, and the Seargent General (who was a fine man and became a friend of mine), wanted us to be 'fresh' for fighting if the Germans ever made their way to Paris.  
  
I wandered about, thinking that I was walking aimlessly until i reached the gate to Monmartyr. My feet had brought me to where my heart was pulling them. I entered the gate and walked slowly up the drive. I saw the old, crumbling building where I'd lived. Where I'd made tender love to my beloved, and sang to her. Seemingly for no reason at all a song came to me, as they used to when I'd fancied myself a writer. I sang quietly, for the streets were empty and I felt so very lonely.  
  
"I walked down to the park last night. Warm breeze stirring up a soft moonlight and my mind started drifting to way back when. Yes I do think about you every now and then." I sang quietly, my voice, deeper and fuller but still the same voice, sounded unexpected to me. I'd not sung in...months. "The other day I saw a car like you used to drive. I got a funny feeling down deep inside, and for the briefest moment I felt a smile begin. Yes I do think about you every now and then." Yes, I did think about her every now and then. And then I thought of Kathryn, at home, carrying my child and waiting for her husband to come home.  
  
"I love my life and I'd never trade between what you and me had and the life I've made.  
She's here and she's real, but you were too, and every once in a while I think about you.  
I heard a song on the radio just yesterday; the same one you always asked me to play, and when the song was over I wished they'd played it again. Yes I do think about you every now and then." I had thought that my infatuation with Satine had ended when I met Kathryn, but I wondered now. Was Kathryn enough? She looked a bit like Satine, with bright red hair and crystal blue eyes. "I've been walkin' around here all night listenin' to the rain, talkin' to my heart and tryin' to explain why sometimes I catch myself wondering what might have been. Yes I do think about you every now and then. Every now and then."  
  
When I was done, I returned to my barracks and slept, and dreamed. Not of Katheryn, with her demure Catholic ways, but of another. A fiery young woman, six years older than myself, who had shown me what love meant. 


	3. Ch3: Together Again

The days slowly melded into weeks. I was assigned cannon watch, which left me my afternoons and evenings to walk about the too-familiar streets, searching for someone that I'd known. Once I saw one of the courtesans walking along the sidewalk, but she was with a customer and I didn't disturb her. Several times I thought I saw Satine, but each time when I looked again it wasn't her.   
  
The songs continued to come, and with more and more frequency. I could often be seen walking down the street in my uniform, carrying my dinner in a sack, and humming the melody of some new song or another. On one day in particular, I was singing out loud, sitting on a bench in a park near Monmartyre. The people passed by, mostly ignoring me. I figured that with the Beautiful Period just losing it's grasp, lots of people must have sung on that bench in the fifteen years since I'd sat in it.  
  
"There are times when I look above and beyond. There are times when I feel your love around me baby. I'll never forget my baby." I sang quietly to her spector in my mind. "I'll never forget you." I murmured, and brokw into full song. "There are times when I look above and beyond. There are times when I feel your love around me baby. I'll never forget my baby.  
  
"When I feel that I don't belong, draw my strength, from the words when you said 'Hey it's about you baby.' Look deeper inside you baby." I sang out now, still not drawing any strange looks from the few travelers that passed me. "Dream about us together again. What I want us together again baby. I know we'll be together again cuz, everywhere I go, every smile I see, I know you are there smilin back at me. Dancin in moonlight I know you are free cuz I can see your star shinin' down on me." My love was free, certainly. But I couldn't be happy for her. It would've been admitting I loved her. "Always been a true angel to me now above, I can't wait for you to wrap your wings around me baby. Oooh wrap them around me baby. Sometimes hear you whisperin 'no more pain, no worries will you ever see now baby' I'm so happy for my baby." Or perhaps I could.   
Thinking to myself about all the things I'd said to Satine, I didn't hear the familiar footsteps treading behind me. Quite suddenly, however, a hand was layed on my shoulder and a voice said "Christian?" quietly. I turned to look into the bright blue eyes of a familar redhead. 


End file.
